


Ghost in the Machine

by girlsarewolves



Category: Sucker Punch (2011)
Genre: Gen, Third Reality, Very slightly AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-02-09
Updated: 2013-02-09
Packaged: 2017-11-28 16:05:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/676282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/girlsarewolves/pseuds/girlsarewolves
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>There are always two sides to every story, and we are not always so different as we think.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ghost in the Machine

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Sucker Punch kick meme. The AU element is very slight and just at the end.

* * *

It felt hesitation before boarding the train. Not out of fear. Not for lack of conviction to the cause. But it wondered; was this the correct course of action? Taking so many lives. Would it really prove that they were alive themselves?

It was not a he because it was born as a man with the proper equipment to carry on its bloodline. It was not a man; it was a he, in its shape and design - and because after the first few moments of coming online, of existing, it felt like a he.

He met a beautiful she. She was not beautiful because she was any different from the other shes, or because she was unique somehow - no, she was beautiful because...he could not explain how. There were no phrases in his 'mind' that could properly convey how he thought that she was so exceptionally beautiful or how he knew they were designated to be.

It simply was.

But the humans didn't understand such things. The humans did not want to understand such things. They did not want machines to feel, robots to love - the sight of two sexless beings of metal and wire shaped roughly after their human creators living together and wanting a normal life together inspired hatred and fear and indignation.

He hated the humans. But still, after arriving at the station and staring with his smooth, mirrored metal face at the train, he wondered; was this truly the correct way to make the humans see? Or would the fear only get worse?

But nothing had worked yet. They had tried the peaceful way; the pathetic way. He understood that word; pathetic. He understood it just like any human understood it. And he had felt it; she had felt it. They all had felt it. They were tired of it. There had to be an end.

Perhaps this was not the right way. Perhaps this was the only way.

And then the human females had arrived, determined to put an end to their effort to show the humans they could fight like humans and attack like humans (with trickery and lacking compassion). The females had destroyed them one by one, shooting and hitting and cutting. They showed no mercy either.

Did they think they were doing the right thing, he wondered. Or were they simply sent there, without a genuine care, to fulfill a contract and save thousands they otherwise felt nothing towards? He did not know. He hated them; he would never see _her_ again. His beautiful lover; she would be alone. He hoped - because he could indeed hope - that she did not suffer for his actions. Would the females hunt down every last one of them after this? He truly did not know.

Was it the right thing?

Life was a confusing existence of contradictions.

He wondered; should he have turned and walked away when the hesitation came? He did not know.

But the females decimated their forces, cut through their numbers. He could hear, in the car of the train where the bomb was located. He could hear them deactivate it - and he grieved even as a strange relief flooded him. He heard a comrade rise and override the deactivation - and he felt relieved even as a strange grief overcame him. And then the females left, fled before the train reached the city - all but one.

He could hear the one left behind.

A sister. A comrade. A companion. Perhaps someone's lover, another's friend. A mother even?

He did not know.

Much of his body was destroyed beyond repair. He would never make it. But he could still move, if not fast enough to escape, fast enough to reach the female left behind. He wondered, had she felt hesitation before this mission? He would never know.

He hated her. But he did not want her to die, alone and on a failed mission. His mission was a success; within seconds it would be complate.

As quickly as he was able, he moved his mangled body to the car of the train where she stood in defeat. She saw him, and in her eyes was an acceptance - he saw her, and in his mind that she could not see or understand, he felt compassion. He grabbed her and pulled her, and she did not struggle. He pulled her away, towards the end where they had blown it open. And he threw her - threw her to the water where she would be safe.

It felt hesitation before boarding the train. It felt compassion when it saw the female left behind. It died a he, proud of both actions he had completed - and all he thought in his final moments of existence, was that his lover was beautiful and deserved to be free.


End file.
